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Disco is a genre of dance
music that had its roots in clubs that catered to African American, psychedelic and other communities in New York City and Philadelphia during the late 1960s and early 1970s. While
disco was a form of black commercial pop
music and a craze among black gay men especially, it did not
catch mainstream attention until it was picked up by the
predominantly white gay clubs of New York. Latinos and women embraced
disco as well, and the music eventually expanded to several other
popular groups of the time.(2007) "The 1970s", ISBN 0313339198,
9780313339196, p.203-204: "During the late 1960s various male
counterculture groups, most notably gay, but also heterosexual
black and Latino, created an alternative to rock'n'roll, which was
dominated by white — and presumably heterosexual — men. This
alternative was disco,..." In what is considered a forerunner to
disco style clubs, in February 1970, the New York City DJ David Mancuso opened The
Loft, a members-only private dance club set in his own home.
Most agree that the first disco songs were released in 1973, though
some claim Manu Dibango's 1972 Soul Makossa to be the first disco record. The
first article about disco was written in September 1973 by Vince Aletti for Rolling Stone Magazine. In 1974 New
York City's WPIX-FM premiered the first
disco radio show.

Musical influences include funk and soul music. The disco sound has soaring, often
reverberated vocals over a steady "four-on-the-floor" beat, an
eighth note (quaver) or sixteenth note
(semi-quaver) hi-hat pattern with an open
hi-hat on the off-beat, and a prominent, syncopatedelectric
bass line sometimes consisting of octaves. Strings, horns,
electric pianos, and electric guitars create a lush background
sound. Orchestral instruments such as the flute are often used for
solo melodies, and unlike in rock, lead
guitar is rarely used.

Well-known late 1970s disco performers included Donna Summer, Amanda
Lear, The Bee Gees, KC and the Sunshine Band, Chic, and The
Jacksons. Summer would become the first well-known and most
popular disco artist, giving her the title 'The Queen of Disco',
and also played a part in pioneering the electronic sound that
later became a part of disco (see below). While performers and
singers garnered the lion's share of public attention, the
behind-the-scenes producers played an equal, if not more important
role in disco, since they often usually wrote the songs and created
the innovative sounds and production techniques that were part of
the "disco sound". Many non-disco artists recorded disco songs at
the height of disco's popularity, and films such as Saturday Night Fever and
Thank God It's Friday
contributed to disco's rise in mainstream popularity.

The disco phenomenon was the last mass popular music movement that
was driven by the baby boom
generation.

An angry backlash against disco
music and culture emerged in the United States hitting its peak
with the July 1979 Disco
Demolition Night riot. While the popularity of disco in the
United States declined markedly as a result of the backlash, the
genre continued to be popular elsewhere during the 1980s.

Because the term "disco" became unfashionable at the start of the
1980's it was replaced by "dance music" and "dance pop" which
described music powered by the basic disco beat. In the decades
since, dance clubs have remained highly popular, and the disco beat
has informed the sound of many of music's biggest stars. Disco has
been influential on several dance music genres that have emerged
since, such as House, Nu-Disco, Hi-NRG, and
Latin Freestyle.

The early disco sound was largely an urban American phenomenon with
producers and labels such as SalSoul Records (Ken, Joe and Stanley
Cayre), Westend Records (Mel Cheren), Casablanca (Neil Bogart), and
Prelude (Marvin Schlachter) to name a few. They inspired and
influenced such prolific European dance-track producers as Giorgio Moroder and Jean-Marc Cerrone. Moroder was the Italian
producer, keyboardist, and composer who produced many songs of the
singer Donna Summer. These included the
1975 hit "Love to Love You Baby", a 17-minute-long song with
"shimmering sound and sensual attitude". Allmusic.com calls Moroder
"one of the principal architects of the disco sound".

The disco sound was also shaped by Tom
Moulton who wanted to extend the enjoyment of the music — thus
single-handedly creating the "Remix" which has
influenced many other latter genres such as hip
hop, techno, and pop. DJs and remixers would often remix (i.e.,
re-edit) existing songs using reel-to-reel tape machines. Their
remixed versions would add in percussion breaks, new sections, and
new sounds. Influential DJs and remixers who helped to establish
what became known as the "disco sound" included David Mancuso, Tom
Moulton, Nicky Siano, Shep Pettibone, the legendary and
much-sought-after Larry Levan, Walter Gibbons, and later, New York–born
Chicago "Godfather of House" Frankie
Knuckles.

Disco was also shaped by nightclub DJs such as Francis Grasso, who
used multiple record players to seamlessly mix tracks from genres
such as soul, funk and pop music at discothèques, and was the
forerunner to later styles such as hip-hop and house. Women also
played important roles at the turntable. Karen Cook, the first
female disco DJ in the United States, spun the vinyl hits from 1974
– 1977 at 'Elan, Houston, TX, and also programmed music for clubs
throughout the US that were owned by McFaddin Ventures.

The rich orchestral accompaniment that became identified with the
disco era conjured up the memories of the big
band era which brought out several artists that recorded and
disco-ized some Big Band Music including Perry Como, who re-recorded his 1929 and 1939
hit, Temptation, in 1975 as well as some unlikely Country artists
such as Bill Anderson (Double S) and
Ronnie Milsap (High Heel Sneakers). Even the
I Love Lucy theme wasn't spared
from being disco-ized.

Characteristics

Disco bass pattern

The "disco sound", while unique, almost defies a unified
description, as it is an ultra-inclusive art form that draws on as
many influences as it produces interpretations. Jazz, classical,
calypso, rock, Latin, soul, funk, and new
technologies — just to name a few of the obvious — were all mingled
with aplomb. Vocals can be frivolous or serious love intrigues —
all the way to extremely serious socially-conscious commentary. The
music tended to layer soaring, often-reverberated vocals, which are
often doubled by horns, over a background "pad" of electric pianos
and wah-pedaled "chicken-scratch" (palm
muted) guitars. Other backing keyboard instruments include the
piano, string synth, and electroacoustic
keyboards such as the Fender Rhodes piano, Wurlitzer electric
piano, and Hohner Clavinet. Synthesizers are also fairly common in
disco, especially in the late 1970s. The rhythm is laid down by
prominent, syncopated basslines (with heavy use of octaves) played
on the bass guitar and by drummers using
a drum kit, African/Latin percussion, and electronic drums such as Simmons and
Rolanddrum modules). The sound is enriched with solo
lines and harmony parts played by a variety of orchestral
instruments, such as harp, violin, viola, cello, trumpet, saxophone, trombone,
clarinet, flugelhorn, French
horn, tuba, English
horn, oboe, flute
(sometimes especially the alto flute and
occasionally bass flute), piccolo, timpani and synth strings.

Most disco songs have a steady four-on-the-floor beat, a quaver or semi-quaver hi-hat
pattern with an open hi-hat on the off-beat, and a heavy,
syncopated bass line. This basic beat would appear to be related to
the Dominican merengue rhythm. Other
Latin rhythms such as the rhumba, the samba and the cha-cha-cha are
also found in disco recordings, and Latin polyrhythms, such as a rhumba beat layered over a
merengue, are commonplace. The quaver pattern is often supported by
other instruments such as the rhythm guitar and may be implied
rather than explicitly present. It often involves syncopation, rarely occurring on the beat unless
a synthesizer is used to replace the
bass guitar. In general, the difference between a disco, or any
dance song, and a rock or popular song is that in dance music the
bass hits four to the floor, at least once a beat (which
in 4/4 time is 4 beats per measure), whereas in rock the bass hits
on one and three and lets the snare take the lead on two and four.
Disco is further characterized by a sixteenth note division of the
quarter notes established by the bass as shown in the second drum
pattern below, after a typical rock drum pattern.

The orchestral sound usually known as "disco sound" relies heavily
on strings and horns playing linear phrases, in unison with the
soaring, often reverberated vocals or playing instrumental fills,
while electric pianos and chicken-scratch guitars create the
background "pad" sound defining the harmony progression. Typically,
a "wall of sound" results. There are however more minimalistic
flavors of disco with reduced, transparent instrumentation,
pioneered by Chic.

In 1977, Giorgio Moroder again
became responsible for a development in disco. Alongside Donna Summer and Pete
Bellotte he wrote the song "I Feel
Love" for Summer to perform. It became the first well-known
disco hit to have a completely synthesised backing track. The song
is still considered to have been well ahead of its time.
Other
disco producers, most famously Tom
Moulton, grabbed ideas and techniques from dub music (which
came with the increased Jamaican migration to
New York City in the seventies) to provide alternatives to the four
on the floor style that dominated.Larry Levan utilized style keys from dub and jazz and more as one
of the most successful remixers of all time to create early
versions of house music that sparked the
genre.

Production

The "disco sound" was much more costly to produce than many of the
other popular music genres from the 1970s. Unlike the simpler,
four-piece band sound of the funk, soul of the late 1960s, or the
small jazzorgan
trios, disco music often included a large pop band, with
several chordal instruments (guitar, keyboards, synthesizer),
several drum or percussion instruments (drumkit, Latin percussion,
electronic drums), a horn section, a
string orchestra, and a variety of
"classical" solo instruments (e.g., flute, piccolo, etc.).

Disco songs were arranged and composed
by experienced arrangers and orchestrators, and producers added their
creative touches to the overall sound. Recording complex
arrangements with such a large number of instruments and sections
required a team that included a conductor, copyists, record
producers, and mixing
engineers. Mixing engineers had an important role in the disco
production process, because disco songs used as many as 64 track of vocals and instruments. Mixing
engineers compiled these tracks into a fluid composition of verses,
bridges, and refrains, complete with orchestral builds and breaks. Mixing engineers helped to develop the
"disco sound" by creating a distinctive-sounding disco mix.

Early records were the "standard" 3 minute version until Tom Moulton came up with a way to make songs
longer, wanting to take a crowd to another level that was
impossible with 45-RPM vinyl discs of the time (which could usually
hold no more than 5 minutes of good-quality music). With the help
of José Rodriguez, his remasterer, he pressed a single on a 10"
disc instead of 7". They cut the next single on a 12" disc, the
same format as a standard album. This method fast became the
standard format for all DJs of the genre.

The 12-inch single format also allowed longer dance time and
format possibilities. In May, 1976,
Salsoul Records released Walter Gibbons' remix of Double Exposure's "Ten Percent", the first
commercially-available 12-inch single. Motown Records’ "Eye-Cue" label also marketed
12-inch singles; however, the play time remained the same length as
the original 45s. In 1976, Scepter/Wand released the first 12-inch
extended-version single, Jesse Green's
"Nice and Slow." This single was packaged in a collectible picture
sleeve, a relatively new concept at the time. Twelve-inch singles
became commercially available after the first crossover, The Tavares' "Heaven Must Be Missing
an Angel".

Disco clubs and dancing

Saturday Night Fever's impact on culture.

Disco ball

Studio 54 Disco palace

Blue disco quad roller skates

By the late 1970s many major US cities had thriving disco club
scenes which were centered around discotheques, nightclubs, and private loft
parties where DJs would play disco hits through
powerful PA systems for the dancers. The
DJs played "...a smooth mix of long single records to keep people
'dancing all night long'". Some of the most prestigious clubs had
elaborate lighting systems that throbbed to the beat of the music.
McFaddin Ventures in Houston, Texas commissioned a study on the
stimulation of males and females during the playing of music. They
accordingly custom tuned their speakers to make their numerous
properties more exciting. Their programmer/disc jockey,
Karen Cook, was the first female disco
DJ in the states and trained other McFaddin Ventures
discjockeys to work the music format - 6 up, 3 down, to sell more
drinks.

Some cities had disco dance instructors or dance schools which
taught people how to do popular disco dances such as "touch dancing", "the
hustle" and "the cha cha."
The pioneer of disco dance instruction was Karen Lustgarten in San
Francisco in 1973. Her book The Complete Guide to Disco Dancing
(Warner Books, 1978) was the first to name and break down popular
disco dances and distinguish between disco freestyle, partner and
line dances. The book hit the New York Times Best Seller List for
13 weeks and was translated into Chinese, German and French.

There were also disco fashions that discothèque-goers wore for
nights out at their local disco, such as sheer, flowing Halston dresses for women and shiny polyester
Qiana shirts for men with pointy collars,
preferably open at the chest, often worn with double-knit and polyester suit jackets with
matching trousers known as the leisure suit.

Hedonism: Drug subculture and Sexual Promiscuity

In addition to the dance and fashion aspects of the disco club
scene, there was also a thriving drug subculture, particularly for drugs that would
enhance the experience of dancing to the loud music and the
flashing lights, such as cocaine (nicknamed
"blow"), amyl nitrite "poppers", and the
"...other quintessential 1970s club drug Quaalude, which suspended motor coordination and gave the sensation
that one’s arms and legs had turned to Jell-O." According to Peter Braunstein, the "massive quantities
of drugs ingested in discotheques produced the next cultural phenomenon of the disco era:
rampant promiscuity and public sex. While
the dance floor was the central arena of
seduction, actual sex usually took place
in the nether regions of the disco: bathroom stalls, exit stairwells, and so on. In other cases the disco
became a kind of 'main course' in a hedonist’s menu for a night out."

Backlash and Decline

Though disco music had enjoyed several years of popularity, an
anti-disco sentiment manifested itself particularly in America.
Many musicians and fans of a variety of rock music styles expressed
strong disapproval of disco throughout the height of its
popularity. Among these critics, the slogans "disco sucks" and
"death to disco" was common by the late 1970s and appeared in
written form in places ranging from tee shirts to graffiti. Radio
DJ's organized mass burnings of Bee Gees
albums and posters. Rock artists such as Rod
Stewart and David Bowie who added
disco elements to their music were accused of being sell outs.

The punk subculture both in the
United States and United Kingdom was often very critical of disco,
even to the point of being downright hostile. Jello Biafra of the The Dead Kennedys likened disco to the
cabaret culture of Weimar
Germany for its apathy towards government policy and its
escapism (which Biafra saw as delusional). He sang about
this in the song "Saturday Night Holocaust", the B-side of the song
"Halloween". Aside
from Jello Biafra's criticism, punk fans shared the "disco sucks"
sentiment of other rock fans. New Jersey rock critic Jim Testa wrote "Put a Bullet Through The
Jukebox", a vitriolic screed attacking disco that was a punk
call to arms. "

Example of Disco Sucks
T-Shirt

Some historians have referred to July 12, 1979 as "the day disco
died" because of an anti-disco demonstration that was held in
Chicago. Rock station DJs Steve Dahl and
Garry Meier, along with Michael Veeck, son of Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck, staged Disco Demolition Night, a
promotional event with an anti-disco theme, between games at a
White Sox doubleheader for disgruntled rock fans. During this event,
which involved exploding disco records, the raucous crowd tore out
seats and turf in the field and did other damage to Comiskey Park. It ended in a riot in which police made
numerous arrests. The damage done to the field forced the Sox to
forfeit the second game to the Detroit
Tigers who won the first game. The stadium suffered thousands
of dollars in damage.

On July 21 six days after the riot the top six records on the U.S.
charts were of the disco genre. By September 22 there were no disco
records in the top 10. The media in celebratory tones declared
disco dead and rock revived.

The anti disco backlash combined with other societal and radio
industry factors changed the face of pop radio in the years
following disco-demolition night. Top 40
radio stations shied away playing music from black artists in an
effort to prevent their stations from being labeled with the
dreaded "disco" tag. These stations converted to a variety of niche
formats. One of the more popular of these formats Country Music fell into favor when Saturday Night Fever star John Travolta had a hit with the film Urban Cowboy a movie that has been perceived as
a rejection of disco.

The television industry — taking a cue from the music industry —
responded with an anti-disco agenda as well. A recurring theme on
the television show WKRP in
Cincinnati contained a hateful attitude towards disco
music.

Factors

Anti disco sentiment proliferated at the time because of over
saturation and the big-business mainstreaming of disco. The popular
1977 film Saturday Night Fever
prompted major record labels to mass-produce hits, a move which
some perceived as turning the genre from something vital and edgy
into a safe "product" homogenized for mainstream audiences. A bad
economy, political chaos that would lead to the election of
Ronald Reagan, and burnout brought on by the hedonistic lifestyles led
by participants also have been cited as factors leading to the
decline of the genre. According to Gloria
Gaynor, the music industry supported the destruction of disco
because rock music producers were losing money and rock musicians
were losing the spotlight. Disco was criticized for being elitist. Songs such as Frank
Zappa's satirical song "Dancin'
Fool" and Steve Dahl's "Do Ya Think I'm Disco?" described
patrons of exclusive discos as being overdressed and vapid.

In January 1979 rock critic Robert
Christgau wrote that homophobia and
most likely racism were reasons behind the
backlash. In the years since Disco Demolition night social critics
have described the backlash as implicitly macho and bigoted and an
attack on non white and non heterosexual cultures. Legs McNeil founder of the fanzinePunk
was quoted in an interview as saying the "hippies always wanted to
be black. We were going fuck the blues, fuck the black experience".
He said that disco was the result of an unholy union between gays
and blacks. It has been noted that United Kingdom punk rock critics of disco were very supportive of
the pro black/anti racist reggae genre. Steve
Dahl has denied the charges saying "It's really easy to look at it
historically, from this perspective, and attach all those things to
it. But we weren't thinking like that." Both Christgau and Testa
noted there were legitimate artistic reasons for being critical of
disco.

Influence on other music

The transition from the late-1970s disco styles to the early-1980s
dance styles was marked primarily by the change from complex
arrangements performed by large ensembles
of studio session musicians (including a horn section and an orchestral string section), to a leaner sound, in which
one or two singers would perform to the accompaniment of synthesizerkeyboards and drum machines.

In addition, dance music during the
1981–83 period borrowed elements from blues
and jazz, creating a style different from the
disco of the 1970s. This emerging music was still known as disco
for a short time, as the word had become associated with any kind
of dance music played in discothèques. Examples of early 1980s dance
sound performers include D.Train, Kashif, and Patrice Rushen.

During the first years of the 1980s, the "disco sound" began to be
phased out, and faster tempos and synthesized effects, accompanied
by guitar and simplified backgrounds, moved dance music toward the
funk and pop genres. This trend can be seen in singer Billy Ocean's recordings between 1979 and 1981.
Whereas Ocean's 1979 song American Hearts was backed with
an orchestral arrangement played by the Los Angeles Symphony
Orchestra, his 1981 song "One of Those Nights (Feel Like
Gettin' Down)" had a more bare, stripped-down sound, with no
orchestration or symphonic arrangements.
This drift from the original disco sound is called post-disco.

TV themes

During the mid to late 1970s a number of TV themes began to be
produced (or older themes updated) with disco influenced music.
Examples include S.W.A.T. (1975), Charlie's
Angels (1976), NBC Saturday Night At The Movies
(1976), The Love Boat (1977), The Donahue Show
(1977), CHiPs (1977), The Professionals (1977),
Dallas (1978), Kojak (1978), and 20/20,
which kept the disco sound throughout the 1980s. The British
Science Fiction program Space: 1999 (1975) also featured a
soundtrack strongly influenced by disco. This was especially
evident in the show's second season.

DJ culture

The rising popularity of disco came in tandem with developments in
turntablism and the use of records to
create a continuous mix of songs. The resulting DJ mix differed from previous forms of dance music,
which were oriented towards live performances by musicians. This in
turn affected the arrangement of dance music, with songs since the
disco era typically containing beginnings and endings marked by a
simple beat or riff that can be easily slipped into the mix.

House music

House music is the direct heir apparent of disco, if not the same
exact genre. A large number of disco performers and musicians have
stated it is the same thing with a different name. Some might agree
that record producers and synthesizer pioneers such as the American
Patrick Cowley and Italian Giorgio Moroder, who both had a number of
hit disco singles such as Moroder's "From Here to Eternity" (1977)
and Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" (1978) and "Hills
of Katmandu" (1978) influenced to some degree the development of
the later electric dance music genres such as house and its stripped down offshoot techno. Both early/proto house music and techno rely
on the repetitive bass drum rhythm and hi-hat rhythm patterns
introduced by disco. However, as house music evolved over time, the
productions became more lush with productions maintaining soulful
vocals while re-introducing live instrumentation and live complex
percussion mixed with the electronic drums and synthesizers —
basically coming full circle back to the Disco musical ideals with
a contemporary edge to them. Techno became more mechanical and
devoid of organic flourishes, relying more on instrumental
compositions or with minimal synthesized vocals.

Early house music, which was developed by innovative DJs such as
Larry Levan in New York and Frankie Knuckles in Chicago, consisted of
various disco loops overlapped by strong bass beats. House music
was usually computer-driven, and longer segments were used for
mixing. Clubs associated with the birth of house
music include New York's Paradise
Garage and Chicago's Warehouse and The Music Box.

Disco tributes continue to be popular draws. The World's Largest Disco, an annual
celebration held over Thanksgiving weekend in
Buffalo, New
York, draws thousands of disco fans in 1970s
attire. In addition to playing disco hits of the era, live
performers from the 1970s make appearances. One surprising place
disco arrived and then never went away is English Junior schools.
By 1975 discos began for young children and are still an annual
feature in many schools today.

Nu Disco

Nu-disco is a 21st century dance music genre associated with the
renewed interest in 1970s and early 1980s disco, mid-1980s Italo
disco, and the synthesizer-heavy Eurodisco aesthetics. The moniker
appeared in print as early as 2002, and by mid-2008 was used by
record shops such as the online retailers Juno and Beatport. These
vendors often associate it with re-edits of original-era disco
music, as well as with music from European producers who make dance
music inspired by original-era American disco, electro and other
genres popular in the late 1970s and early 1980s. It is also used
to describe the music on several American labels that were
previously associated with the genres electroclash and deep
house.

(2002) "Traces of the Spirit: The Religious Dimensions of
Popular Music", ISBN 0814798098, 9780814798096, p.117: "New York
City was the primary center of disco, and the original audience was
primarily gay African Americans and Latinos."

(1976) "Stereo Review", University of Michigan, p.75: "[..] and
the result - what has come to be called disco - was clearly the
most compelling and influential form of black commercial pop music
since the halcyon days of the "Motown Sound" of the middle
Sixties."

Gootenberg, Paul 1954- - Between Coca and Cocaine: A Century or
More of U.S.-Peruvian Drug Paradoxes, 1860-1980 - Hispanic American
Historical Review - 83:1, February 2003, pp. 119-150. He says that
"The relationship of cocaine to 1970s disco culture cannot be
stressed enough; ..." -

Amyl, butyl and isobutyl nitrite (collectively known as alkyl
nitrites) are clear, yellow liquids which are inhaled for their
intoxicating effects. Nitrites originally came as small glass
capsules that were popped open. This led to nitrites being given
the name 'poppers' but this form of the drug is rarely found in the
UK. The drug became popular in the UK first on the disco/club scene
of the 1970s and then at dance and rave venues in the 1980s and
1990s. Available at:
http://www.drugscope.org.uk/druginfo/drugsearch/ds_results.asp?file=%5Cwip%5C11%5C1%5C1%5Cnitrites.html

(2001) "Encyclopedia of Contemporary American Culture", ISBN
0415161614, 9780415161619, p.217: "In fact, by 1977, before punk
spread, there was a "disco sucks" movement sponsored by radio
stations that attracted suburban white youth, who insisted that
disco was escapist, synthetic and overproduced."